the fund's mission chief, edward gardener, said the country's target of 3% gdp was less pressing than cutting excess from public finances. the imf warned against more tax hikes, warning these could further restrict french economic growth. >>> and speaking exclusively to nbc, the ceo of alcatel-lucent says he expects french companies to continue to battle head winds. >> we will improve on structural inners, for sure. if you take a european approach, you certainly will see some of the benefits of the structural improvement that we made. but if you look two feet on the ground, i think 20 is 13 will not be substantially better than 2012. >> what about your business? >> i think what you saw in 2012 was that the u.s. market was very strong. europe was weak. china was very weak. and i think that if you look to 2013, the u.s. will stay strong. i think europe will stay where it was in 2012 and i think that in china, we'll see. >> how are you dealing with the competition from asian telecom equipmentmaker? >> like every other competitor, you have to deal with it. for us, it's innovation. at a ti